I start to sweat. At the temple, leaving food on your plate is disrespectful. Is "no more" raising my index finger up and down or wiggling it back and forth? Or is that for blackjack?

At the last minute I resort to the internationally recognized semaphore of madly waving my hands and shaking my head, which elicits suppressed smiles from the nuns.

After a post-lunch chanting session at the International Buddhist Temple and a stroll through the grand Chinese gardens (modeled after Beijing's Forbidden City), I drive back to my hotel - past a mosque, a Hindu temple, an Islamic cultural center, the Thrangu Tibetan Monastery and Dr. Li's Acupuncture and Herb Clinic.

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Everyone heading downtown from Vancouver International Airport passes through a corner of what looks like just another suburb. But Richmond is anything but ordinary.

No mere Chinatown, it's a modern Asian city in its own right, with a population of 200,000 that is 60 percent Asian. At 44 percent, it has more residents of Chinese ancestry than any other Canadian metropolis.

You can get major Asian immersion here without leaving North America. Trilingual in these parts means English, Cantonese and Mandarin; there's an authentic Hong Kong night market in the summer, as well as tai chi in every park.

Best of all, top Asian chefs have moved into Richmond's high-end Chinese restaurants - and are scooping up awards.

Great migration

It wasn't always like this. When I grew up in Vancouver in the 1960s and '70s, this suburb at Vancouver's southern flank was known as Lulu Island, a low-lying farmscape of open fields and fruit stands where we headed to "U-Pic Blueberries" and rode our bikes along the dikes that hold back the Fraser River.

"Even in the late 1980s we had to drive downtown to Chinatown to shop," says Malaysian-born Henry Beh of the Richmond Chinese Community Society. "Then, after 1995, there was a huge influx of businesses and new immigrants because Richmond was close to Vancouver and affordable. Now Asian tourists are flocking here for the food and cultural celebrations like Chinese New Year."

Richmond's booming commercial district sprawls along a grid of wide avenues, the main one being No. 3 Road, but the hub is the Golden Village, four easy-to-explore square blocks. From the airport it's a five-minute drive or Sky Train ride slinking futuristically on overhead rails into Aberdeen station; from downtown Vancouver it's just a 20-minute trip.

The Village is a high-density cluster of diverse shops, restaurants and malls small and large, as well as several hotels that make this a convenient base from which to explore the rest of Vancouver.

Mall of Asian stores

I always start a Richmond visit with shopping, contemporary Asian style, at the curvy, modern Aberdeen Centre designed by Hong Kong and Canadian architect Bing Thom. On this trip, I hold the door open for Wing Chan, who is moving twisted bonsai masterpieces from his van into the mall's atrium.

"There's a big exhibition this weekend," he shouts above the scream of a plane overhead on its final approach.

Aberdeen is the place if you're in the market for a Lamborghini or high-end Asian fashion. There's also Giordano, the Asian Gap, and Daiso, a Japanese chain where almost everything is $2. And I never miss the unique Cube boutique, where creators "rent" a small, glass-fronted cube space to exhibit their arts, crafts and imports without investing in their own store.

There are frequent cultural exhibits in the atrium, such as traditional Chinese painting, pottery or dance demonstrations, alongside a massive fountain that geysers with sound and light drama toward a stellar upper-level food floor.

I tour the single-level Hong Kong-style mall called Parker Place, a labyrinth of tiny shops stuffed with value fashion, jewelry and home goods, with Stacey Chyau, who works for Richmond's tourism bureau.

In the food court (Asian food courts and supermarket take-out counters generally have excellent traditional street and comfort foods), Chyau introduces me to Singapore pork and beef jerky, and we share a Chinese slushy drink made with tofu, almond and red beans at the Cherry Fruit Juice & Icy Bar.

Then it's over to Yaohan, a super-size Japanese supermarket with an aisle of fish sauces from Taiwan, Thailand, China and Vietnam. "When my parents come to visit from Taipei, they drool at the pan-Asian selection here," Chyau says, "especially the sauces and snacks from China they can't buy there."

Foodie's delight

Richmond's biggest draw is its cuisine, 400-plus restaurants that had a New York Times reporter claiming she tasted the "best Chinese food outside of China" here. Standards are high, even for cheap chopstick fare at mom-and-pop enclaves such as Chen's Shanghai Kitchen.

Dining out is such a big part of local culture that foodies have their own street within the Golden Village. Alexandra Road or, in local lingo, "Wai Sek Kai" ("Eat Street"), is just four blocks long, but crammed with more than 200 restaurants and cafes.

Don't be shy - just open doors and poke your head into grand ballroom-style buffet dining rooms, hot-pot hot spots or Japanese barbecue hideaways. I love the rich Malaysian laksa soup and other Asian comfort food at the Cattle Café and happily join the line for coconut buns and egg tarts at the wildly popular Kam Do Bakery.

But it's the high-end cuisine that really rocks in Richmond. Expect dim sum to die for (such as the three-mushroom dumplings, shiitake, enoki and truffle oil) at Jade Seafood Restaurant on Alexandra Street. Like at many of the best dining rooms in Richmond, a top Hong Kong-trained chef, Tony Luk, is in the kitchen. Even better, dining out is generally reasonably priced.

"In Hong Kong," says Jade owner David Chung, "food of this quality would be more expensive 90 percent of the time."

Street food paradise

On weekends from May to September, Asian street food is on the local menu as well during the Summer Night Market, a 10-acre site where more than 20,000 visitors stream in nightly as the sun goes down.

Mouthwatering Pan-Asian fare such as satay, sizzling garlicky pork, shrimp dumplings, spicy noodles, grilled squid and even Hong Kong tofu pudding are whipped up and served at outdoor stalls. Finish up with junk food from bubble tea to dragon's beard candy.

It's the only event of its kind in North America, and with 240 stalls, the shopping section is paradise for kitsch-combers who wander beneath strings of lights among vendors willing to barter for everything from cheap cell phone accessories and samurai swords to goldfish and all things Hello Kitty.

One part of Richmond that has been synonymous with Asian culture for more than a century is the village of Steveston, Canada's largest commercial fishing port.

In its heyday, 15 salmon canneries lined the Fraser River's mouth, mostly staffed with Japanese and Chinese who rode from Vancouver's Chinatown on a street car dubbed the "Sockeye Special."

The restored Gulf of Georgia Cannery is now an excellent National Historic Site. Rob Hart guides me through, pointing out a section of wall still covered with a thick layer of fish scales. The best-paid employees were the Chinese men who could butcher four to five fish per minute.

Pointing at a hefty contraption he says was invented in 1905 and bears a Chinese slur for its nickname, he says, "It could remove a fish's head, fins and guts in one second."

These days the quaint village's pier is a magnet for Asians mad for fresh seafood who pick up sea urchins, spot prawns and sable fish straight off rows of fishing boats.

Skates to paddles

My last stop is at the great arched Richmond Oval, built from pine beetle-infested wood as the 2010 Olympic speedskating venue. Now it's a multisport complex and includes a new center for table tennis, a sport more commonly played in warehouses and basements.

Khen Ng, who was a Brunei national champion and is an Olympic-caliber coach, shows me the "pen-hold style," gripping the paddle as if it were a pen.

"It's like holding chopsticks," he quips, then teaches me not only that pingpong is more about rhythm than hand-eye coordination, but that it's also a surprisingly good workout.

Afterward, I finish the day cycling along the nearby dikes again for the first time in decades. These days they are the domain of the slimmest Canadians: A 2011 study found that Richmond has the country's lowest obesity rate. The elevated pathway is a perfect place to spot Richmond's blend of West and East.

With a backdrop of Vancouver's snowcapped North Shore Mountains, I ride past a pair of Vietnamese women fast-walking, protected against the sun with traditional over-the-elbow white gloves, while on my right, a pair of Chinese dragon boats glides by on the Fraser River.

What to Do

International Buddhist Temple: (604) 274-2822, www.buddhisttemple.ca. Open 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily. Meditation sessions including lunch with the nuns must be booked well in advance. Meditation classes in English are Saturday, 9-11 a.m. Seven-day chanting retreats also are offered.